Classroom Management
The Foundation for Learning
Tim McDonald
Also available as:
$79.95 AUD
- ISBN:
- 9780190354572
- Published:
- 31 Aug 2026
- Availability:
- Coming soon
Classroom management isn’t separate from teaching. It is teaching’s essential foundation. Yet most teachers are never explicitly taught how to build it.
The consequences are real. Children who arrive at school already knowing how to listen, persist, and regulate themselves pull ahead. Those who don’t fall behind — and the gap widens every year. This is not inevitable. It is the predictable result of behaviour that was never explicitly taught.
Classroom Management: The Foundation for Learning offers a different path. Grounded in cognitive science, positive psychology, and the lived experience of thousands of classrooms, Dr Tim McDonald introduces the CORE Framework – a systematic approach to creating Calm, Orderly, Respectful Environments where every student can flourish.
This is more than a book of principles. It is a complete operational toolkit — scripts, routines, de-escalation protocols, behaviour support plans, and structured re-entry processes teachers can use from Monday morning. Effective classroom management is not about charisma. It is a set of teachable skills. When the foundation is built — deliberately, systematically, and with compassion — trajectories shift, gaps narrow, and equity moves from aspiration to daily practice.
Every child deserves a teacher who knows how to create the conditions for learning. Will you be that teacher?
Dr Tim McDonald is one of Australia’s leading voices on evidence-informed education.
A former teacher, Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University, Executive Director of Catholic Education Western Australia, he is CEO of Y (formerly YMCA) Western Australia and subject matter expert to the Federal Government’s Engaged Classrooms Initiative. Tim is also the author of Classroom Management: Engaging Students in Learning, now in its third edition.
Tim’s work is shaped by a lifelong commitment to educational equity — from walking alongside Mum Shirl in New South Wales prisons, to building the capacity of teachers to create classrooms where every child can flourish.
"My favourite aspect of Classroom Management: The Foundation for Learning is its precision - the clear, measurable steps that replace the broad, ambiguous language we too often rely on, and which students are then expected to interpret for themselves. I particularly liked the interview style scaffolds used with onboarding new staff. This level of commitment to building staff capability is refreshing. It ensures expectations are not left to individual interpretation but enacted consistently across the school. Classroom Management: The Foundation for Learning reflects a deep understanding that behaviour is not managed individually but built collectively. In a landscape where guidance can remain well-intentioned but vague, this offers a coherent and practical model that schools can enact with confidence. It will support leaders and teachers at all stages of their journey." -- Jeanette Breen, Acting CEO, Think Forward Educators, Head of Global Partnerships, No More Marking, Learning Specialist, Templestowe Heights Primary School.
"Classroom Management: The Foundation for Learning goes links so well with the explicit teaching schools are trying to implement. The CORE framework aligns the two big frameworks of the Positive Classroom Management Strategies (PCMS) and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM). It fits nicely with so many elements and there is nothing out there supporting schools to codify their behaviour curriculum, so this text ties it all together. While schools might believe they are doing aspects of classroom behaviour management already, the CORE framework presented in Classroom Management: The Foundation for Learning sets it out with clarity." -- Rhys Coulson, Principal, Templestowe Heights Primary School.